I traveled 47 countries in a 30L pack and could never solve the jacket problem

I traveled 47 countries in a 30L pack and could never solve the jacket problem — so I spent 2 years building the answer. This is my story, my experience, here’s what I learned:

Every trip started with the same question:
Which jacket do I bring?

The parka? Too bulky. Doesn’t fit in the bag. Useless in anything above 50°F.

The raincoat? Handles rain. Does nothing for cold. Breathes like a trash bag. Takes up space waiting for the rain to come. 

The hoodie? Comfortable. Zero weather protection. Soaked in 10 minutes.

So try to bring two? Now a third of your 30L bag is jackets. Or you’d wear the bulky one onto the plane, sweating through security, stuffing it into the overhead because it won’t fit in your carry-on.

Every single trip. The same compromise.

After 47 countries, multiple jackets left behind. I stopped looking for the right jacket and started designing one.

Here’s what 2 years of development taught me:

The problem isn’t that good jackets don’t exist. The problem is that every jacket is designed to do one thing well — and take up space doing nothing the rest of the time. The last thing you want while traveling in one bag, is wasted space, and carrying more than you need to. 

A parka sits dead in your bag for 90% of a trip. A raincoat only works when it rains. A hoodie only works when it doesn’t rain. 

So we built the RoamCoat around two rules: 

Rule 1: You shouldn’t have to choose which weather you’re prepared for. When you are not in weather, than it should be used in other ways. 

The shell is a 3-layer laminate — 20,000mm waterproof, RET ≤8 breathable, fully seam-taped. It handles rain without a DWR coating (the membrane waterproofs molecularly — no chemicals that wash out after 5 cycles). Worn alone in a storm. Over a hoodie in the cold. One shell for every forecast.

Rule 2: What you carry should earn its place even when you’re not wearing it. Multipurpose! 

The RoamCoat packs into its own waist pocket, and can be stuffed away. But here’s the part nobody else designs for — packed, it doesn’t just disappear into your bag. It becomes a pillow on the overnight flight or those nasty hostels. A blanket draped over your legs in a freezing cabin. A clean surface between you and a wet bench. A secondary personal item on Ryan air, if they tell you you can’t have an extra personal item, you shove all your extra clothing into the large front pocket and wear it on as a coat! They can’t tell you no. Wear it as a changing robe while on the beach or in a shared room, use it as a waterproof gear protector, throw you camera, laptop, phone into the waterproof pockets while roaming the rainy streets or dolomite peaks. It’s become a small day pack, shove a baguette, peroni, and some cheese!

In a 30L life, nothing gets to be just one thing. Especially not your jacket.

 

This isn’t a jacket for people who want another jacket, or who want the lightest weight emergency shell.

It’s for people who are tired of overpacking, underpacking, and being caught out.